My Postwick apiary has not had a visit for some weeks now and as the bees were flying in allotment today I though I would visit both Thorpe and Poswick to see if the bees were flying OK.
Of the three hives at Thorpe the middle hive had far the highest number of flying bees and on inspection I saw that the entrance wasn't restricted or protected from mice . I quickly made an entrance block for it. The left hand hive with the old queen didn't have flying bees until it was distured - then it had plenty.
Out of the ten hives at Postwick one had only dead bees in it. I think it was failing the last time I put a bucket of feed on it as that feed bucket was still completely full today. I think the hive had a failing queen even then. It wasn't on an open mesh base.
The hive nearby with the old queen was flying well. That hive had two brood boxes and a super so I took off the super that was completely empty and smelling a little musty and put the full bucket of feed on instead.
I put the crown board from the failed hive on the hive that had the damaged crown board, even though the brood box I find is smaller and the correct size for a for a WBC hive.
I made a quick check of the UEA orchard hives and both had flying bees.
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